Written by Neil Patel on July 17, 2016

Most off-page SEO has to do with just one activity — link building.

When Google sees a piece of content getting links for a particular keyword, it knows that the content MUST be good and relevant for that keyword. So it, ranks that content in the top SERPs for those keywords.

Most efforts won’t see such numbers because, like I said, it’s a lot harder to get backlinks now. On top of that, you might be doing it wrong. If your content doesn’t attract links, here are the top 5 things you should analyze and fix.

1. Your content is not on the mark

You have failed to create a “linkable asset”.

A “linkable” asset is one that’s so awesome that people want to link to it. Creating a linkable asset is at the core of all link-building strategies and outreach efforts.

If people don’t link to your content or if all of your backlink emails get ignored, the biggest reason could be that you’ve failed to create something worth a backlink.

But, if you’re ready to put in the effort, this one won’t be too hard to rectify.

To create linkable content – first, you need to choose a topic that’s popular and has the potential of earning links, i.e., you need to look for a linkable topic.

Second, you need to create something that’s better than the existing content with the most backlinks on that topic.

For the first step, you will need a tool, like BuzzSumo or Ahrefs. These tools will help you identify the most popular topics in your domain, those that have received the most backlinks.

Let’s see how to choose a linkable topic using Ahrefs.

(Ahrefs plans start at $99, but there’s a two-week free trial.)

Once you sign up, enter a broad keyword that you’re considering. Or, just type in the name of your niche.

For example, if you’re looking to build a linkable asset around content curation, just type in “content curation” and hit search. Ahrefs will then pull together the most popular content around your topic.

Here’s what I found, when I did the search:

As you can see in the above screenshot, content curation is a topic that gets a lot of backlinks so, yes, this topic qualifies for a linkable asset.

For the second step of developing something better than the content with the most backlinks, use the following tactics:

Tactic #1: Update

If you notice the above screenshot, the first thing that will strike you is that the content with the most backlinks is old. It’s either from early 2014, or, as it is with the top result, 2011.

So, yes, if you could update this content by adding updated, advanced tactics and tools, you could go to the sites that are linking to these resources and say, “Hey, I wrote something better and more updated on this topic – mind checking it out?”

Now, for someone who’s linking to a post that’s years old, they might be interested in checking out what you’ve got to offer.

Tactic #2: Write longer

If you notice that the content with the highest backlinks isn’t outdated, look for its length and depth. Once you get an idea about how those sites have covered the topic, you just need to go deeper in your post.

When you’re targeting list posts, this is somewhat easier, because if a post with “10 tips to do something” has the most backlinks for a topic, you can write one with “50 better ways to do it” and steal all of the backlinks.

Tactic #3: Give a unique spin

Giving a post a unique spin needs more insight into the topic.

For example, you can give your content curation post a transparency spin, by showing your readers how you did content curation and the results that you got.

This way, you ensure that your content has a UNIQUE ANGLE that no other blog can give it. People will also trust you a little more when you share your results.

Groove has taken a lot of common topics and given them a unique “transparency” spin.

Take their influencer outreach post, for example. The topic “influencer outreach” has been discussed multiple times, however, the way Groove covered it made it better than most of the existing content around that topic.

Tactic #4: Use a data-backed approach

Another great way of polishing existing content is to back it up with data. So, if you can look for the latest stats, studies and surveys around a topic, you can make the existing content better.

For our content curation example, you could look for the latest stats and case studies for content curation and easily improve upon the existing content.

A simple Google search will give you the latest data for this step.

Tactic #5: Use great graphics

You already know the importance of graphics in blog posts. They break up the text content and make it more readable. Images boost social shares, too.

Because they improve the engagement value of content, images are an excellent means to create a better version of any content.

When you use images to upgrade existing content, make sure that youuse a healthy mix of images: stock photos, graphs, screenshots, charts and custom images.

Important Note: I recommend that you beat the existing content on every level: length, design, current information etc.

The next time that you approach a site with a backlink request, make sure that you’re offering something that’s better than the resource that the target blog recommends. It can be more in-depth, more engaging and/or more visually appealing. Whatever it is, it just has to be better.

2. You don’t try (enough)

“Write it and people will link to it.” If this is how you approach links, I’m afraid your content will not get any backlinks (unless you’ve reached a point where you “earn” links because of your authority status).

The thing is this: You don’t get backlinks without trying.

It’s almost impossible that a big blog will stumble upon your site, read your best post and link to it.

It has to be YOU who reaches out to that BIG blog and tells them about the incredible content you’ve just published. One of the best techniques you could try is the Skyscraper technique.

It’s a three-step technique:

Step #1: Find linkable content topics

Step #2: Create something better than the best content on those topics

Step #3: Reach out to all of the sites that link to the original content and seek backlinks.

While the Skyscraper technique is one of the most effective link building techniques (in most niches), there is a little improvement that you can make on it and get even better results. (I’ve shared that in the 4th point.)

But for now, all that I need you to know is that you’ve got to try to get links and the Skyscraper technique is a great starting point.

3. You request the wrong blogs

Sometimes your link building efforts could be misplaced. It could be that you created a great linkable asset and tried for backlinks, but still failed. Sometimes, in such cases, the real reason for poor response could be that you requested links from the wrong blogs.

The next time that you reach out to a blog for links, make sure that they pass through the following 3-point checklist:

1. Are in the same niche as you

Choosing blogs in your niche is important for a few reasons:

They’re more likely to link to you

When a blog is in your niche, it will be more willing to give you a backlink, because your content will be either directly or in a very strong way related to what it offers to its readers.

For example, if you have a content marketing blog, then sites like the Ahrefs, ContentMarketingInstitute and more will be good sites to request backlinks from, because they’re in the same niche as you.

But, if you reach out to food blogs, your emails will be ignored.

Another reason that you’ll only want to get backlinks from related sites is that it will keep you safe from Google penalties. Google penalizes sites that have incoming backlinks from unrelated domains.

Besides, if a link is from a site in your niche, it will likely have more value as it will bring a more targeted audience than a randomly placed backlink.

2. Are interested in your topic

Everyone would like to have backlinks from high authority sites like Lifehacker, Forbes or Entrepreneur.

The problem with approaching such sites is that, most of the time, they might just not be into your topic. And so, no matter how great your post is, you won’t hear back.

Before you send a backlink request email, make sure that the target blog is interested in what you’ve got to offer.

3. Are open to linking to third-party sites (ideally have already linked to a similar post)

Before sending your link request email, make sure that the target site has given backlinks to related topics.

The logic is simple: if a site has linked to a similar resource in the past, it might be interested in your content, too.

When you use the right tools for finding the target blogs, you’ll do reasonably well in this step, because tools like Ahrefs will do the heavy lifting and give you the full list of sites that have linked back to the topic you’re looking to cover.

This way, you’ll know that the blogs you reach out to tick all of the above boxes.

Note that some sites make it clear that they don’t give backlinks. Avoid such sites since you won’t probably hear back.

4. Your way of asking for links is flawed

Because most of the top blogs and influencers in any niche are constantly bombarded with link request emails, getting noticed becomes difficult. Your link request email looks like one of the many link request emails that a popular blog gets every day.

Chances are that … like most of the other emails that the blog gets, your email, too, WILL be trashed. This won’t be because you requested that the site link to poor content, but because there was nothing special about your email request approach.

If you engage an influencer, before asking for a link or share, you’re much more likely to get it, when compared to sending cold pitches.

5. Your request email is ineffective

If you feel that you’re doing all of the above things right and still aren’t seeing any results, then the problem probably lies with your outreach email.

The most common reasons that outreach emails fail is when they sound like a template and lack credibility. I’ve written about how to avoid these common mistakes in outreach emails in this post and you can find some ready-to-use email outreach templates here.

Sometimes, bloggers do make the effort to personalize their outreach emails, but they overdo it and end up writing emails that are so long that they stop being effective. Since popular blogs get a lot of these emails, it’s best to keep them short.

When you follow the above tactic of warming up a blog, before requesting a backlink, you’ll be able to write a much warmer email, because you would have found out more about the target blog through your engagement.

These insights will naturally reflect in your outreach email and the target blog, too, will note it.

Conclusion

Email outreach is one of the best ways to get backlinks. But, to be successful, you’ll have to personalize your efforts. Just creating linkworthy content is not enough. Template emails will also just take you just so far.

But, it all starts with creating great content. Use length, a unique spin, data and visual assets to create something that a blog’s readers will want to see.

What’s your success rate with backlinks using email outreach? And have any of the above reasons ever cost you backlinks?

My STARTUP :

Let me introduce myself. My name is Richard Nata.I am an author, novelist, blogger and ghost writer. My articles, including short stories have been published in magazines and newspapers since 1994. I have written a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction. So I was a professional in the field of writing, both fiction and non-fiction.

I was born in Jakarta, August 17, 1968.

In 1988, at the age of 20 years, I started working as an accounting staff. Age 24 years has occupied the position of Finance Manager. Age 26 years as a General Manager.

In 1994, my articles published in magazines and tabloids.

In 1997, I wrote a book entitled "Buku Pintar Mencari Kerja". This book is reprinted as much as 8 times. Through the book, the authors successfully helped tens of thousands of people get jobs at once successful in their careers. They were also successful when moving to work in other places.

In 1998, I started investing in shares on Bursa Efek Indonesia (Indonesia stock exchange). As a result of investing in the stock market then I can provide consulting services for companies that want to go public in Indonesia stock exchange.

In theory, in 10-20 years into the future, my startup income, amounting to hundreds of million USD annually can be obtained easily. AND IF FOLLOWED BY MANY COMPANIES IN THE WHOLE WORLD WILL THEN BE A NEW INDUSTRIAL worth trillions USD.

To be honest. Currently I'm not having a lot of money. So I start marketing my startup with blogspot.

My STARTUP :

A story with millions of choices in it - looking investor like you.

Try to imagine this. When you're reading a story on the web or blog, you are given two choices. You can choose the next story based on your own choice. After selecting then you can continue reading the story. Shortly afterwards you will be presented back to the 2 other options. The next choice is up to you. Then you continue the story you are reading. After that you will be faced again with 2 choices. So onwards. The more stories you read so the more options you have taken.

If you feel curious then you can re-read the story by changing your selection. Then you will see a different story with the story that you have read previously. The question now is why is this so? Because the storyline will be varying according to your choice.

I, as the author is planning to make tens of thousands of articles with millions of choices in it. With tens of thousands of articles then you like to see a show of your favorite series on TV for several years. The difference is while watching your favorite TV series, then you can not change the story. Meanwhile, if you read this story then you can alter the way the story according to your own choice.

You might say like this. Sounds like a book "choose your own adventure". Books I read when I was young.

Correctly. The idea is taken from there. But if you read through a book, the story is not so exciting. Due to the limited number of pages. When a child first you may already feel interesting. But if you re-read the book now then becomes no fun anymore because you don't get anything with the amount of 100-200 pages.

Have you ever heard of game books? When you were boy or girl, did you like reading game books? I think you've heard even happy to read it.

A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages.

Lihat preview menurut Yahoo

Bantam Books with the Choose Your Own Adventure series has produced more than 250 million USdollars. While I offer you more powerful than the Choose Your Own Adventure. Because of what? Because the story that I made much more interesting than the stories created by the authors of Bantam Books. You will not get anything just to 100-200 pages. While the story that I created is made up of tens of thousands of articles with millions of choices in it.

Based on the above, then you are faced with two choices. Are you interested in reading my story is? Or you are not interested at all. The choice is in your hands.

If you are interested then spread widely disseminated this article to your family, friends, neighbors, and relatives. You can also distribute it on facebook, twitter, goggle +, or other social media that this article be viral in the world. By doing so it is a new entertainment industry has been created.

WHY DO I NEED STARTUP FUNDS FROM INVESTORS? I NEED A LOT OF FUNDS FROM INVESTORS BECAUSE I HAVE TO LOOKING FOR EXPERT PROGRAMMERS(IT).BECAUSE THE DATA IS HANDLED IS VERY LARGE, IT MAY HAVE TO WEAR SOME PROGRAMMERS(IT).I CAN NOT WEAR SOME FREELANCE PROGRAMMER BECAUSE THE DATA MUST BE MONITORED CONTINUOUSLY FROM VIRUSES, MALWARE, SPAM, AND OTHERS.IN ADDITION FUNDS FROM INVESTORS IS ALSO USED TO BUY SERVERS WITH VERY LARGE CAPACITY. FUNDS ARE ALSO USED TO PAY EMPLOYEE SALARIES AND OPERATIONAL COSTS OF THE COMPANY.

FUNDS CAN ALSO BE USED FOR ADVERTISING AND OTHER MARKETING STRATEGIES.FUNDS CAN ALSO BE USED TO ADVERTISE MY STARTUP AND OTHER MARKETING STRATEGIES.

IF I GET A VERY LARGE FUND, THE PART OF THE FUNDS USED TO TRANSLATE THE STORY INTO VARIOUS LANGUAGES.With more and more languages, the more readers we get.

WITH MORE AND MORE READERS, THE MORE REVENUE WE GET.

AS AN INVESTOR THEN YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FEEL ANXIOUS ABOUT YOUR FUNDS. BECAUSE YOUR FUNDS WILL NEVER BE LOST BECAUSE IN 3-5 YEARS YOU HAVE RETURNED THE FUNDS COUPLED WITH PROFIT.

THIS BUSINESS IS ONE AND THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD.

If we can make a good story, so that the readers will come again and again for further reading the story then our earnings will continue to grow and will never diminish. This is due to new readers who continued to arrive, while long remained loyal readers become our customers.

So that the number of our readers will continue to multiply over time. With the increasing number of loyal readership then automatically the amount of income we will also grow larger every year. The same thing happened in yahoo, google, facebook, twitter, linkedin, and others when they still startup.

Deuteronomy {28:13} And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them: ]

Try to imagine this. If I give a very unique story. It was the first time in the world. But the world already know this story even liked it. Because the world love the game books. While the story that I made is the development of game books.

Do you Believe ifI dare say if I will succeed because my story will be famous all over the world as Harry Potter?

I believe it. Not because I was the author of the story, but because of the story that I made is unique and the only one in the world.

Income from my startup :

1. Ads. With millions of unique visitors, the price of the ads will be expensive.

2. Affiliate marketing. In addition to advertising, we are also able to put up some banner from affiliate marketing.

3. Contribution of the readers. If you have a million readers and every reader to pay oneUS dollarper year then you will get the income of one million US dollars per year.

If you have a million readers and every reader to pay one US dollar per month then you will get as much revenue twelve million US dollars per year.

4. Books and Comics. After getting hundreds of thousands to the millions of readers of the story will be made in books and the form of a picture story (comics).

5. Movies. If we have a good story with millions of readers then quickly we will be offered to make a film based on the story.

6. Merchandise related to characters. After the movies there will be made an offer for the sale of goods related to the characters.

7. Sales. With millions of email that we have collected from our readers so we can sell anything to them.

Each income (1-7) worth millions to tens of millions of US dollars.

Because each income (1-7) worth millions to tens of millions of US dollars. Then in 10-20 years into the future, AI will be earning hundreds of million USD annually.

So how long do you think my story that I made could gather a thousand readers? Ten thousand readers? One hundred thousand readers? A million readers? Five million readers? Ten million readers? More than ten million readers?

But to get all of it of course takes time, can not be instant. In addition, it takes hard work, big funds and placement of the right people in the right positions.

By advertising, viral marketing, strong marketing strategies and SEO then a million readers can be done in less than a year. Ten million readers can be done in two to three years.

This is the marketing strategy of my startup.

When hundreds of thousands or millions of readers already liked my story then they have to pay to enjoy the story that I made.

If you are a visionary then you will think like this.

With the help of my great name in the world of business, my expertise in marketing, advertising, marketing by mouth, viral marketing, then collecting a million readers to ten million readers will be easy to obtain. Is not that right?

The question now is what if people like my story as they like Harry Potter? You will get tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of email addresses from readers. With that much email, we can sell anything to the readers.

Since April 2013, Wikipedia has around 26 million articles in 285 languages are written by 39 million registered users and a variety of anonymous people who are not known from other parts of the world. Web ranked by Alexa, Wikipedia is a famous website number 6 which has been visited by 12% of all Internet users with 80 million visitors every month and it is only from the calculation of America.

So do not delay. Invest your money immediately to my startup. Take A Look. There are so many advantages if you want to invest in my startup.

WHY YOU SHOULD INVEST YOUR MONEY RIGHT NOW? .

IF YOU INVEST YOUR FUNDS IN ONE, TWO OR THREE YEARS INTO THE FUTURE, YOU MAY BE TOO LATE.BECAUSE IN 1-3 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE THEN I'VE GOT THE FUNDS. THE FUNDS CAN COME FROM SOME INVESTORS, LOANS FROM BANKS OR FROM ADVERTISEMENTS POSTED ON MY BLOG.IF I'VE GOT A LARGE AMOUNT OF FUNDS THEN I'VE NO NEED OF YOUR FUNDS. SO INVEST NOW OR NOT AT ALL.

My BLOG started to be written January 11, 2015. TODAY, MAY 30, 2015, THE NUMBER OF CLICKS HAS REACHED 56,750. SO FAR SO GOOD.

If I get big funds from investors then with a quick story that I wrote will spread throughout the world.So I got acceleration because I can put ads in a large variety of media such as Google AdWords, Facebook, and others. I also can perform a variety of other marketing strategies.

If I do not get funding from investors then my story would still spread throughout the world. But with a longer time, Slow but sure.So either I get funding from investors or not, the story that I wrote will remain spread throughout the world. Ha ... 7xSo don't worry, be happy.

My advice to you is you should think whether the data that I have provided to you makes sense or not .

If my data reasonable then immediately invest your funds as soon as possible.

Then we discuss how we plan further cooperation.

Thank you.

Lord Jesus bless you.

Amen

P.S. The offer letter I gave also to the hedge funds and venture capital and other major companies in the entire world. So who is fast then he will get it.